A cooler day around 21 degrees Celsius with 10-20 knot SSE moderate breeze provided some exciting and challenging sailing conditions. This week five (5) catamarans coming down to sail. Four(4) catamarans racing. A new potential catamaran sailor came down today and Tony Sanderson and Bill spoke to him. He was thinking of purchasing a Hobie 16 but I think the small cat guys have advised him a little differently. Time will tell, hopefully a new addition to the club in the near future.This week Tony Sanderson decided to adjust his side stays a little tighter. Out on the water this appeared to do the trick and he was back in form.

At briefing due to no Ty's racing and only 1 large catamaran it was decided to have only 2 starts.

Jack Kroek and Andy Blakey doing duty. They set a port course. Start line out in front of the harbour inside Gooseberry Island. Windward mark out towards the shallows mid lake and wind mark towards the IYC entrance.

The catamaran start got away cleanly on starboard tack. Wind strength saw all out on the wire heading towards the reef travelling parallel to the shore. Billyo finding the wind just a touch too strong and decided to pull the pin and headed back to shore leaving the conditions to his younger rivals. Once near the reef the catamarans then tacked up to the windward mark. Hitting the waves pretty much head on. There was plenty of spray. Hot pepper noting that the nose of the bows punching through the waves. Occasionally when hitting the waves a little too deeply pulling the boat up.Once rounding the top mark a great reach was had back to the wing mark. Some care had to be taken when skimming down the back of a wave so as not to trip up into the back of the next. Once rounding the wing mark a great smoother run was had to the bottom mark across the waves. On the windward return Hot Pepper dropped off the pace a little and decided to try a work straight back up the lake past Gooseberry Island after rounding the bottom mark. The waves on this side of the lake being larger made tougher going and Groove Thing stretched his lead.At the top mark Hot Pepper had a lapse when tacking and didn't get the trapeze wire off quick enough. Caught on the Leeward side of the boat causing it to capsize. Wasting valuable minutes having to right the craft a couple of times in the strong wind conditions. Once back upright, with the obligatory chocolate top signifying his misadventure, soldiered on.

By this stage Symphony2 and Groove Thing had set the pace. Hot Pepper still continued on having some great rides. An occasion gust giving the boat some great surges of acceleration and spray. Crew hanging out over the back to keep the nose up to prevent a pitch pole. On the last lap with a bit of fatigue setting in when coming in off the wire at the top mark not able to release the trapeze wire almost spelt disaster. However this time was able to dump the main and gib and turn into the wind to allow time to unhook and get back on track.

Finish times were as follows:

General:1. No sailing next week due to Easter holiday weekend.2. If a nice day a couple of people were talking about maybe coming down for a sail on one of the days during the Easter break.Regards Hugh Lewis